Cell Sense

You see it all the time… people driving erratically, not moving when the light turns green, or simply not paying full attention. The culprit? The cell phone. Yes, one year after Oahu became the first island to ban the use of driving while using such devices, you still see far too many people yakking away while rolling down the highway. Is it a cause of more fender benders than reported? Of course, as people involved in minor mishaps certainly don't want to compound the issue by admitting to being distracted.

Simply put, it's too hard to police the transgressions, and the fines and penalties are not harsh enough to preclude many people, if not most, from still gabbing on the phone while driving. The use of inner ear devices or car-mounted fixtures might have helped the situation a bit, but it still causes a less-than-100% effort at motoring through the potholes and traffic on Oahu and the other islands, which have also banned cell phone or music device usage while driving.

The good news is that most cases have been prosecuted thus far- the guilty parties are apparently not putting up too much of a fight. And some people are calling it in when they see people in other vehicles using their phones. Of course, that means they are using their own phone, but let's assume they're not drivers at the time. Bottom line is- it's kind of working, but you need to be your own police on this one, for everyone's sake. Think about it…